Two US Navy pilots were shot down over the Red Sea on Sunday in “an apparent case of friendly fire”, the US military said.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Sunday they had “targeted” aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman a day earlier in an operation that led to “shooting down an F-18 aircraft” and thwarting “American-British aggression” against Yemen.
United States Central Command (Centcom) said both US pilots were recovered alive, but “initial assessments indicate that one of the crew members sustained minor injuries”.
The incident “was not the result of hostile fire and a full investigation is under way”, Centcom said.
The potentially disastrous mistake underscores the dangers of a mission the United States has been involved in for more than a year to counter Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
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The Houthis have repeatedly targeted merchant vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, waterways vital to global trade.
Centcom said the guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg “mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18” fighter aircraft, which Navy pilots had flown off the USS Harry S. Truman.
